Title: The Mark
Author(s): Jen Nadol
Format: Hardback
Release Date: January 19th, 2010
Publisher:  Bloomsbury
Source: Library
Pages In This Edition: 228
Rating: 5/5 Stars!


On the Cover:

Beyond the Cover:

Summary from Goodreads:

"Sixteen year old Cassandra Renfield has seen the mark since forever: a glow around certain people as if a candle were held behind their back.

The one time she mentioned it to someone else, the mark was dismissed as a trick of the light. So Cassie has kept quiet, considering its rare appearances odd, but insignificant. Until the day she watches a man die. Mining her memories, Cassie realizes she can see a person's imminent death. Now how or where, only when: today.

Cassie searches her past, her philosophy lessons, even her new boyfriend for answers, answers, always careful to hide her secret. How does the mark work? Why her?

Most importantly: if you know today is someone's last, should you tell them?"

Review: 

I had actually checked this one out at the library a couple months ago, and ended up having to return it. But when I saw it available again I grabbed it, mostly because of my total cover lust for it. I'm so glad that I gave it a real chance!


After I read it I was so blown away I even contacted Jen about getting some SWAG to giveaway (thanks to her I had my first giveaway not to long ago!). She is so nice and the story she told was one of the best I'd read so far this year. 

Okay let's really get into this review now.


The Mark tells the story of a sixteen year old girl who can tell when people are about to die. She sees a light around them, and then sometime within the next twenty-four hours, they die. Sometimes of natural causes, and sometimes because of terrible accidents. It's just so interesting. I could never imagine being able to do that; to know when someone is going to die.

The plot in this one just takes you and grabs you. You want to know just as much as Cassie does about the specifics of her "curse". It was always pushing forward, and even through middle I was kept interested (Cassie takes some philosophy lessons that really get you thinking.) Most of all by the end I was still thinking what I would do in a situation like that. Would I be able to tell someone it was their last day? And even If I did want to, was it right to mess with fate?


Cassie was a great character too. You wanted to root for her, because even though she had this power, she seemed really human. She didn't magically know exactly what to do in her situation, like the heroines in some novels. She had to work it about and make mistakes. It was all really believable. 


Overall, The Mark is an interesting and thought-provoking tale about believable and undeniably human characters, doing what humans do; learn about life through experience. I would recommend this book to just about anybody who loves a great story with an interesting and new idea that gets you thinking.


--Alexis